Oral examination: a screening tool for HIV infection? (1/673)

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the predictive values for HIV infection of diagnosis of oral manifestations of the infection. METHOD: Prevalence of oral manifestations was compared in cross sectional blinded clinical examinations of homosexual men attending a genitourinary medicine clinic. Data were extrapolated to populations in England and Wales based on estimates of the prevalence of HIV infection. RESULTS: Data were analysed for 572 HIV infected and non-infected men (312 and 260 respectively). Positive predictive values for erythematous candidiasis, hairy leucoplakia and pseudomembranous candidiasis were greater than 0.96 at the genitourinary medicine clinic and are estimated to be greater than 0.72 among homosexual men in London. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical diagnoses of mucosal lesions alone are poor predictors of HIV infection but are useful when used in conjunction with a social history to establish if there are risk factors for infection.  (+info)

Intraepithelial lymphocytes traffic to the intestine and enhance resistance to Toxoplasma gondii oral infection. (2/673)

Toxoplasma gondii Ag-primed intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL) from the mouse intestine have been shown to be protective against an lethal parasite challenge when adoptively transferred into recipient mice. In the present study, we observed that Ag-primed IEL traffic to the intestine of naive mice following i.v. administration. Primed and CD8beta+ IEL were the most efficient cells at homing to the host organ. In congenic mice, IEL migrated from intestine within several hours posttransfer. On Ag reexposure, the primed IEL return to the intestine where they enhance resistance as determined by reduction in the number of brain cysts. Treatment of recipient mice with anti-alpha4 and anti-alphaE Abs partially inhibited IEL intestinal homing. The Ab treatment dramatically impaired resistance to a subsequent oral infection. These finding indicate that lymphocyte homing is an important parameter in establishing long term immunity to recurrent infection with this parasite.  (+info)

Oral carriage of staphylococci in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. (3/673)

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of oral staphylococcal carriage in patients with rheumatoid arthritis compared with healthy controls. METHODS: Fifty healthy adults, 25 healthy elderly volunteers and 25 patients with rheumatoid arthritis were studied. An oral rinse, tongue swab and nasal swab were collected for culture on blood agar and a range of selective agars. Isolates of staphylococci were identified and antibiotic sensitivity profiles determined by standard methods. RESULTS: Staphylococci were isolated from the mouths of 94% of the healthy adults, 24% of whom carried Staphylococcus aureus. All the healthy elderly carried oral staphylococci and 36% were colonized with S. aureus. Staphylococci were isolated from 96% of the rheumatoid arthritis patients and this group had the highest carriage rate of S. aureus (56%), significantly higher than the healthy adults (P < 0.05). In all three groups, Staphylococcus epidermidis was isolated from the mouths of > 80%. No methicillin-resistant strains of S. aureus were isolated. CONCLUSION: Oral carriage of S. aureus appears to be common in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and studies of the mouth as a source of infection in septic arthritis would be merited.  (+info)

Human Gongylonema infection in a resident of New York City. (4/673)

A case of infection with Gongylonema is described in a 41-year-old woman living in New York City. The patient sought medical attention with the complaint of a sensation of 1-year duration of something moving in her mouth. On two occasions she removed worms from her mouth, once from her lip, once from the gum. One of the specimens submitted for examination was an adult female Gongylonema. It is not possible to say whether the infection was acquired in New York City, or elsewhere, since the patient traveled frequently to Mississippi to visit relatives. As cases of delusional parasitosis continue to increase, clinicians and laboratorians alike need to be alert to the possibility that foreign objects removed from the mouth, or elsewhere, may indeed represent unusual parasitic infections, and that these objects should be examined before being discarded.  (+info)

Interleukin-15 production at the early stage after oral infection with Listeria monocytogenes in mice. (5/673)

We previously reported that exogenous interleukin-15 (IL-15) induces proliferation and activation of intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (i-IEL) in naive mice. To investigate the ability of endogenous IL-15 to stimulate i-IEL in vivo, we monitored i-IEL and intestinal epithelial cells (i-EC) in mice after an oral infection with Listeria monocytogenes. Although the populations of alphabeta and gammadelta i-IEL were not significantly changed after the oral infection, the expression level of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) was increased both at transcriptional and protein levels, and a conversely marked decrease in interleukin-4 (IL-4) was detected in the i-IEL on day 1 after infection as compared with before infection. The T helper 1 (Th1)-biased response of i-IEL coincided with a peak response of IL-15 production in the i-EC after oral infection. These results suggested that IL-15 produced from i-EC may be at least partly involved in the stimulation of i-IEL to produce IFN-gamma after oral infection with L. monocytogenes.  (+info)

Medullary dorsal horn neuronal activity in rats with persistent temporomandibular joint and perioral inflammation. (6/673)

Studies at spinal levels indicate that peripheral tissue or nerve injury induces a state of hyperexcitability of spinal dorsal horn neurons that participates in the development of persistent pain and hyperalgesia. It has not been demonstrated that persistent injury in the orofacial region leads to a similar state of central hyperexcitability in the trigeminal system. The purpose of the present study was to conduct a parametric analysis of the response properties of nociceptive and nonnociceptive neurons in trigeminal nucleus caudalis (medullary dorsal horn, MDH) in a rat model of persistent orofacial inflammation. Neurons were recorded extracellularly and classified as low-threshold mechanoreceptive (LTM, n = 49), wide dynamic range (WDR, n = 82), and nociceptive-specific (NS, n = 11) neurons according to their response properties to mechanical stimuli applied to their cutaneous receptive fields (RFs). The inflammation was induced 24 h before the recordings by injecting complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) into the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) capsule or the perioral (PO) skin. The mean areas of the high-threshold RFs of WDR neurons in TMJ (8.66 +/- 0.61 cm(2), n = 25) and PO (5.61 +/- 2.07 cm(2), n = 25) inflamed rats were significantly larger than those in naive rats (1.10 +/- 0. 16 cm(2), n = 32). The mean RF size in TMJ-inflamed rats also was significantly larger than that in PO-inflamed rats (P < 0.01). Furthermore the mean area of the RFs of NS neurons (3.74 +/- 1.44 cm(2), n = 5) was significantly larger in TMJ inflamed rats as compared with naive rats (0.4 +/- 0.09 cm(2), n = 3) (P < 0.05). The background activity in the TMJ- and PO-inflamed rats was generally greater in WDR and NS neurons, but less in LTM neurons, when compared with naive rats. The responses of WDR neurons to noxious mechanical stimuli were increased significantly in TMJ-inflamed rats (P < 0.05) as compared with naive rats. WDR neuronal responses to mechanical stimulation also were increased in PO-inflamed rats but to a lesser extent than in TMJ-inflamed rats. The injection of CFA into the TMJ or PO skin resulted in reduced responses of LTM neurons to mechanical stimuli. The responses of MDH nociceptive neurons to 48-55 degrees C heating were greater in inflamed rats as compared with naive rats. A subpopulation of WDR neurons recorded from TMJ (n = 4 of 10)- or PO (n = 3 of 13)-injected rats responded to cooling in addition to heating of the RFs but did not grade their responses with changes in stimulus intensity. These results indicate that persistent orofacial inflammation produced hyperexcitability of MDH nociceptive neurons. TMJ inflammation resulted in more robust changes in MDH nociceptive neurons as compared with PO inflammation, consistent with previous studies of increased inflammation, increased MDH Fos-protein expression, and increased MDH preprodynorphin mRNA expression in this deep tissue orofacial model of pain and hyperalgesia. The inflammation-induced MDH hyperexcitability may contribute to mechanisms of persistent pain associated with orofacial deep tissue painful conditions.  (+info)

Heterogeneity of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans strains in various human infections and relationships between serotype, genotype, and antimicrobial susceptibility. (7/673)

Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, an oral pathogen, only occasionally causes nonoral infections. In this study 52 A. actinomycetemcomitans strains from 51 subjects with nonoral infections were serotyped and genotyped by arbitrarily primed PCR (AP-PCR) to determine whether a certain clone(s) is specifically associated with nonoral infections or particular in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility patterns. The promoter structure of leukotoxin genes was additionally investigated to find the deletion characteristic of highly leukotoxic A. actinomycetemcomitans strains. The nonoral A. actinomycetemcomitans strains included all five known serotypes and nonserotypeable strains, the most common serotypes being b (40%) and c (31%). AP-PCR distinguished 10 different genotypes. A. actinomycetemcomitans serotype b strains were more frequently found in blood samples of patients with bacteremia or endocarditis than in patients with focal infections. One AP-PCR genotype was significantly more frequently found among strains originating in focal infections than in blood samples. Resistance to benzylpenicillin was significantly more frequent among A. actinomycetemcomitans serotype b strains than among strains of other serotypes. No differences in the leukotoxin gene promoter region or benzylpenicillin resistance between nonoral and oral A. actinomycetemcomitans strains were observed. Nonoral A. actinomycetemcomitans strains showed great similarity to the oral strains, confirming that the oral cavity is the likely source of nonoral A. actinomycetemcomitans infections. The predominance of serotype b strains in endocarditis and bacteremia supports the hypothesis of a relationship between certain A. actinomycetemcomitans clones and some nonoral infections. The mechanisms behind the exceptionally high rate of occurrence of benzylpenicillin resistance among A. actinomycetemcomitans serotype b strains are to be elucidated in further studies.  (+info)

A glutamine insertion in the 1A alpha helical domain of the keratin 4 gene in a familial case of white sponge nevus. (8/673)

White Sponge Nevus (WSN) is a rare, autosomal dominant disorder that predominantly affects noncornified stratified squamous epithelia. Clinically, it is characterized by the presence of soft, white, and "spongy" plaques in the oral mucosa. The characteristic histopathologic features are epithelial thickening, parakeratosis, and vacuolization of the suprabasal layer of oral epithelial keratinocytes. Mutations in keratin 4 (K4) and keratin 13 (K13) genes have already been demonstrated to be responsible for WSN; the identification of new keratin mutations in a stratified squamous epithelia closely related to epidermis is of relevance for the understanding of the biochemistry of intermediate filaments, and for genotype phenotype correlations. In this study we investigated a 27-y-old, female Italian patient, affected by white asymptomatic oral plaques. Sequence analysis revealed a 3 bp (ACA) heterozygous insertion localized in the helix initiation motif of the 1A alpha helical domain of K4. We report this new K4 gene mutation and describe an amino acid insertion, in the 1A domain, responsible for a keratin disease.  (+info)